Measurements of neutral pion (pi(0)) production at midrapidity in root s(NN)=200 GeV Au+Au collisions as a function of transverse momentum, p(T), collision centrality, and angle with respect to reaction plane are presented. The data represent the final pi(0) results from the PHENIX experiment for the first RHIC Au+Au run at design center-of-mass energy. They include additional data obtained using the PHENIX Level-2 trigger with more than a factor of 3 increase in statistics over previously published results for p(T)&gt;6 GeV/c. We evaluate the suppression in the yield of high-p(T) pi(0)&#39;s relative to pointlike scaling expectations using the nuclear modification factor R-AA. We present the p(T) dependence of R-AA for nine bins in collision centrality. We separately integrate R-AA over larger p(T) bins to show more precisely the centrality dependence of the high-p(T) suppression. We then evaluate the dependence of the high-p(T) suppression on the emission angle Delta phi of the pions with respect to event reaction plane for seven bins in collision centrality. We show that the yields of high-p(T) pi(0)&#39;s vary strongly with Delta phi, consistent with prior measurements 1,2. We show that this variation persists in the most peripheral bin accessible in this analysis. For the peripheral bins we observe no suppression for neutral pions produced aligned with the reaction plane, whereas the yield of pi(0)&#39;s produced perpendicular to the reaction plane is suppressed by a factor of similar to 2. We analyze the combined centrality and Delta phi dependence of the pi(0) suppression in different p(T) bins using different possible descriptions of parton energy loss dependence on jet path-length averages to determine whether a single geometric picture can explain the observed suppression pattern.

Emission source functions are extracted from correlation functions constructed from charged pions produced at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at s(NN)=200 GeV. The source parameters extracted from these functions at low k(T) give first indications of a long tail for the pion emission source. The source extension cannot be explained solely by simple kinematic considerations. The possible role of a halo of secondary pions from resonance emissions is explored.

Muon production at forward rapidity (1.5 &lt;=|eta|&lt;= 1.8) has been measured by the PHENIX experiment over the transverse momentum range 1 &lt;= p(T)&lt;= 3 GeV/c in root s=200 GeV p+p collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. After statistically subtracting contributions from light hadron decays an excess remains which is attributed to the semileptonic decays of hadrons carrying heavy flavor, i.e. charm quarks or, at high p(T), bottom quarks. The resulting muon spectrum from heavy flavor decays is compared to PYTHIA and a next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculation. PYTHIA is used to determine the charm quark spectrum that would produce the observed muon excess. The corresponding differential cross section for charm quark production at forward rapidity is determined to be d sigma(c (c) over bar)/dy|(y=1.6)=0.243 +/- 0.013(stat.)+/- 0.105(data syst.)(-0.087)(+0.049)(PYTHIA syst.) mb.

Measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy of high-p(T) neutral pion (pi(0)) production in Au+Au collisions at s(NN)=200 GeV by the PHENIX experiment are presented. The data included in this article were collected during the 2004 Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider running period and represent approximately an order of magnitude increase in the number of analyzed events relative to previously published results. Azimuthal angle distributions of pi(0) mesons detected in the PHENIX electromagnetic calorimeters are measured relative to the reaction plane determined event-by-event using the forward and backward beam-beam counters. Amplitudes of the second Fourier component (v(2)) of the angular distributions are presented as a function of pi(0) transverse momentum (p(T)) for different bins in collision centrality. Measured reaction plane dependent pi(0) yields are used to determine the azimuthal dependence of the pi(0) suppression as a function of p(T), R-AA(Delta phi,p(T)). A jet-quenching motivated geometric analysis is presented that attempts to simultaneously describe the centrality dependence and reaction plane angle dependence of the pi(0) suppression in terms of the path lengths of hypothetical parent partons in the medium. This set of results allows for a detailed examination of the influence of geometry in the collision region and of the interplay between collective flow and jet-quenching effects along the azimuthal axis.

Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of eta mesons in the range p(T)approximate to 2-12 GeV/c have been measured at midrapidity (vertical bar eta vertical bar &lt; 0.35) by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC in p+p,d+Au, and Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV. The eta mesons are reconstructed through their eta -&gt;gamma gamma channel for the three colliding systems as well as through the eta -&gt;pi(0)pi(+)pi(-) decay mode in p+p and d+Au collisions. The nuclear modification factor in d+Au collisions, R-dAu(p(T))approximate to 1.0-1.1, suggests at most only modest p(T) broadening (&quot;Cronin enhancement&quot;). In central Au+Au reactions, the eta yields are significantly suppressed, with R-AuAu(p(T))approximate to 0.2. The ratio of eta to pi(0) yields is approximately constant as a function of p(T) for the three colliding systems in agreement with the high-p(T) world average of R-eta/pi(0)approximate to 0.5 in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions for a wide range of center-of-mass energies (root sNN approximate to 3-1800 GeV) as well as, for high scaled momentum x(p), in e(+)e(-) annihilations at root s=91.2 GeV. These results are consistent with a scenario where high-p(T) eta production in nuclear collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is largely unaffected by initial-state effects but where light-quark mesons (pi(0),eta) are equally suppressed due to final-state interactions of the parent partons in the dense medium produced in Au+Au reactions.

Neutral-pion pi(0) spectra were measured at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar &lt; 0.35) in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 39 and 62.4 GeV and compared with earlier measurements at 200 GeV in a transverse-momentum range of 1 &lt; p(T) &lt; 10 GeV/c. The high-p(T) tail is well described by a power law in all cases, and the powers decrease significantly with decreasing center-of-mass energy. The change of powers is very similar to that observed in the corresponding spectra for p + p collisions. The nuclear modification factors (RAA) show significant suppression, with a distinct energy, centrality, and p(T) dependence. Above p(T) = 7 GeV/c, R-AA is similar for root sNN = 62.4 and 200 GeV at all centralities. Perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculations that describe R-AA well at 200 GeV fail to describe the 39 GeV data, raising the possibility that, for the same p(T) region, the relative importance of initial-state effects and soft processes increases at lower energies. The p(T) range where pi(0) spectra in central Au + Au collisions have the same power as in p + p collisions is approximate to 5 and 7 GeV/c for root sNN = 200 and 62.4 GeV, respectively. For the root sNN = 39 GeV data, it is not clear whether such a region is reached, and the x(T) dependence of the x(T)-scaling power-law exponent is very different from that observed in the root sNN = 62 and 200 GeV data, providing further evidence that initial-state effects and soft processes mask the in-medium suppression of hardscattered partons to higher p(T) as the collision energy decreases.

Bose-Einstein correlations of charged kaons are used to probe Au+Au collisions at s(NN)=200 GeV and are compared to charged pion probes, which have a larger hadronic scattering cross section. Three-dimensional Gaussian source radii are extracted, along with a one-dimensional kaon emission source function. The centrality dependences of the three Gaussian radii are well described by a single linear function of N-part(1/3) with a zero intercept. Imaging analysis shows a deviation from a Gaussian tail at r greater than or similar to 10 fm, although the bulk emission at lower radius is well described by a Gaussian. The presence of a non-Gaussian tail in the kaon source reaffirms that the particle emission region in a heavy-ion collision is extended, and that similar measurements with pions are not solely due to the decay of long-lived resonances.

Differential elliptic flow (v(2)) for phi mesons and (anti)deuterons ((d) over bar )d is measured for Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The v(2) for phi mesons follows the trend of lighter pi(+/-) and K-+/- mesons, suggesting that ordinary hadrons interacting with standard hadronic cross sections are not the primary driver for elliptic flow development. The v(2) values for ((d) over bar )d suggest that elliptic flow is additive for composite particles. This further validation of the universal scaling of v(2) per constituent quark for baryons and mesons suggests that partonic collectivity dominates the transverse expansion dynamics.

We report the measurement of direct photons at midrapidity in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The direct photon signal was extracted for the transverse momentum range of 4 GeV/c &lt; pT &lt; 22 GeV/c, using a statistical method to subtract decay photons from the inclusive photon sample. The direct photon nuclear modification factor R-AA was calculated as a function of p(T) for different Au + Au collision centralities using the measured p + p direct photon spectrum and compared to theoretical predictions. R-AA was found to be consistent with unity for all centralities over the entire measured pT range. Theoretical models that account for modifications of initial direct photon production due to modified parton distribution functions in Au and the different isospin composition of the nuclei predict a modest change of R-AA from unity. They are consistent with the data. Models with compensating effects of the quark-gluon plasma on high-energy photons, such as suppression of jet-fragmentation photons and induced-photon bremsstrahlung from partons traversing the medium, are also consistent with this measurement.